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CHAIRMAN'S REPORT
After a difficult period for the Society, I am pleased to be able to report, that the prospects have much improved since I wrote to you in March.
We have a Chairman elect in David Gamble, and several new members for the Committee. Over 30 members offered to distribute leaflets to encourage new members - and most welcome donations of £50 were received. As you will see in the Accounts, the continuing losses have been reduced. The various actions taken by your Committee, including reducing the number of Newsletters to two per year and stopping the traditional pattern of members' meetings, have lessened the financial problems.
The key challenge for the Society remains the impact of future planning activities. The consequences of the Draft Local Development Framework, prepared by the Sevenoaks District Council, will result in unsustainable, over-developments in Sevenoaks, over the next 17 years, with potentially early threats to our precious Greenbelt. On your behalf, the Committee made many comments on the draft document to the SDC, expressing our concerns that the Central Government's housing targets are incompatible with our special urban landscape and surrounding countryside. The current lull in planning applications, resulting from the "credit crunch", will soon be over. We look forward to the results of the Council's consultation over the LDF, but we are not very confident that anything will change substantially. In this eventuality, the Society will have to fight hard to reduce the ill effects resulting from the plan.
After 6 years as Chairman, I shall be standing down at the AGM in October. I would like to thank the Committee for all that they do for the Society. In particular, a special word of thanks for Frank Marshall for his amazing dedication to Planning. Amongst the many helpers who keep the Society going, Sylvia Lyons ( organising Members' meetings), Margaret Newman (teas/coffees) and Phyllis Styles ( Newsletter distribution ) deserve highlighting.
Some of you may have heard that the Civic Trust, the umbrella organisation for all amenity organisations such as ourselves, has gone into administration. Over the last 50 years, the number of Civic Societies in England has declined from 3000 to 700.
I am confident that the new Committee, supported by the Membership, will ensure that the Sevenoaks Society thrives and continues to do all it can to keep Sevenoaks special.
Robert Harcourt
